Cullen and Fenton Wife Swap
by ilovepuppies125
Summary: Vlad entered Maddie and the Fentons on to Wife Swap as part of his evil plot. At the same time, in Forks Washington, Emmett has entered the Cullens on to Wife Swap. What will happen when these two strange families collide? How will Danny and the Cullens manage to keep their secrets?
1. Chapter 1

Cullen and Fenton Wife Swap

Prologue:

Vlad's POV-

Hmm, Vlad mused in his office, 'What can I do to either irritate or expose Daniel, while at the same time, win Maddie's heart?' he asked himself while stroking his fluffy white cat, Maddie.

The cat looked up at him, giving an annoyed meowing sound.

"You're right Maddie, that would be a perfect idea," the evil billionaire grinned logging onto the computer and printing out the Wife Swap application.

"By entering the Fentons on Wife Swap, I can get Maddie out of the house while I send ghosts to terrorize Jack, which would get Danny revealed on national television, all the while," he chuckled darkly, "Maddie would be away from Jack, which would make her realize that she needs a normal husband, much like myself."

Vlad let out an evil laugh, "You will be mine Maddie Fenton, and I will use this annoying reality television show to prove it."

**Hi there, I hope you liked the first part of this story. In the next chapters we will see how Vlad's meddling affect the Fentons and the Cullens.**

**Please Rate and Review.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Danny's POV-

When Danny, Tucker and Sam returned home from school one day, after walking up the front steps to Fenton Works, Danny found both of his parents and Jazz in the living room waiting for him.

"Danny! Guess what, we've been chosen to be on Wife Swap! Isn't that great!" Danny's mom beamed.

'No,' was Danny's first thought. Now he would have to keep his secret from the woman who would be staying with them _and _the entire country.

"Yeah, Mom that's awesome," Danny faked enthusiasm but managed to get looks of pity from Jazz, Sam and Tucker, "We'll be in my room now."

Danny, Tucker, and Sam sped up the stairs, quickly followed by Jazz who had made an excuse to leave.

"Danny!" Jazz shrieked, "Did you sign us up for Wife Swap?" she asked, accusing him.

"Jazz, why would I do that? It's bad enough that I have to keep my secret from Mom and Dad, but now I have to keep it from another person in this house, not to mention the _entire _country!" I yelled back at her. Jazz looked at the floor, feeling guilty for having accused me.

"Well if you didn't, who did?" Sam asked.

"I have an idea," I grumbled, immediately knowing that this had to be a plot by Vlad Masters to get my secret exposed and then swoop in to steal my mom. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz, nodded knowingly.

"Who are we going to be swapping with anyway?" I asked.

"A woman named Esme Cullen, from Forks, Washington," Jazz told me.

"Forks?" Tucker asked in disbelief, "Is there a _Spoons, _Washington too?" Tucker joked, but quickly shut up when he received a glare from the rest of us.

Emmett's POV-

As a prank I had decided to sign my whole family up for Wife Swap. Now, Carlisle was chewing me out.

"Did you realize that you could put our whole family in jeopardy because of what you have done?" Carlisle seethed.

"Oh, come on, we've managed to keep it a secret this long I think we can handle it," I argued.

"We've also never been on _national_ television before!" Carlisle countered.

"In, Emmett's defense," Alice piped up, "I don't see anything going wrong because of this show."

Carlisle sighed. Esme put her hands on his shoulders.

"Everything will be alright, Carlisle," she soothed, smiling at her husband.

**Alright, how did you like chapter one? The next chapter will begin the switch.**

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	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Maddie POV-

On the day of the swap, I had packed my bags and prepared to say goodbye to my family.

"Bye Danny bye Jazz," I told them giving them each a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"Bye Mom," they replied in unison. I smiled at them before turning to Jack.

"Bye Jack," I gave him a kiss, "I love you." I pulled him close and whispered in his ear, "Don't burn down the house while I'm gone."

Jack let out a hearty laugh, "I love you too, and don't worry I have everything under control here."

'That's what I'm worried about ' I thought to myself. Instead I lied, "Oh, I'm sure you do," I laughed nervously.

Climbing down the steps and stepping into the limo, I rolled down my window and waved goodbye to my family and my home as we drove out of sight.

Several hours later, the limo turned onto a winding road through the woods and opened up to a huge house.

"Wow," I said, walking up the front steps to the door. I turned the key and entered into the house. The inside was as extravagant as the out side, open and light, with an entire back wall of windows that showed the thick forest behind the house. The house had a museum-like quality to it, like nobody actually lived there. I sighed, it was so unlike my comfortable home.

I went up the stairs and found the kids bedrooms, although no real _kids _seemed to live here, every bedroom was very grown up unlike Danny's with his NASA posters and empty food packets strewn around or even Jazz's room which, although she attempted to make it look grown up, still had Bearbert displayed proudly on her bed. One bedroom had a huge collection of CD's in every genre of music but with a closet full of both men and women's clothes. Another bedroom had a video game collection but also a make-up vanity, and, once again men and women's clothes in the closet. A third room had a ton of civil war paraphernalia and design magazines with scraps of clothing all over. Once again when I looked in the closet there were men's and women's clothes but, in reality the man had a small corner of the closet but the rest, which was as big as the room itself (maybe bigger) was filled completely with expensive designer clothes. The final room was the most childish (but still not very) it was a light pink color, with a wolf stuffed animal on the bed. The closet looked like the spillover from the last closet, with more designer clothes and a few men's clothes (although there were no men's shirts). Finally I proceeded downstairs, finding a relatively normal master bedroom, guest room (where I put my suitcase) office, living room and kitchen where the rules to the family were set on the counter. I picked up the book.

"Hello, we are the Cullens. My name is Esme. My husband Carlisle is a doctor so he often works late, but since he and I are not able to have children so we have adopted eight," it read.

'_Eight_?' I thought, astounded, sometimes I found it hard to deal with two. I continued reading.

"None of the kids are related except for Jasper and Rosalie who are twins and the children of my deceased sister, so we see nothing wrong with all of them being together within the family."

"_What?_" I blinked in surprise, that was insane, but it did explain the closet situations.

"Edward, 17, and Isabella (Bella), 17, are together; Jasper, 18, and Alice, 18, are together; Rosalie, 18, and Emmett,18, are together; and Reneseme, 16, and Jacob, 17, are together. You should be warned that Rosalie can be very rude and standoffish at first but she will warm up to you once you get to know her. Emmett looks really tough but he is really nice. Edward, Bella and Jacob are really protective of Reneseme. There are very few rules around here because my children are generally well behaved, except for the fact the Emmett likes to pull pranks. They have no bedtimes, no curfews, and no chores, except to clean their rooms. They all get good grades in school so I do not oversee their homework. And they all have their own cars so they are able to go wherever they want. Oh, and by the way, if a group of shirtless tan guys hang around it's okay, they are friends of ours and live on the reservation not too far from here."

I was stunned, this family had no discipline. Suddenly, I heard cars pull up outside, it was time to meet my new family.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Esme POV-

On the day of the swap, I had packed my bags and prepared to say goodbye to my family.

"Bye everyone," I smiled giving each of them a hug. Emmett picked me up and squeezed me when I hugged him, I'm sure if I had been human I wouldn't have been able to breathe.

"Bye," they all smiled back at me.

"Carlisle," I turned to him and kissed him, "Keep everything under control. I love you."

"Of course, Esme," he smiled warmly at me, "I love you too."

"Bye!" I waved back at everyone one last time, "Act human and behave!"

They all muttered their agreements and followed me as I walked out the front door and stepped into the limo. Slowly we drove away from my beautiful home to somewhere called Amity Park, Illinois.

Several hours later, I arrived in the town of Amity Park. I was not overwhelmed by the city, and the sky was a grey overcast color.

Hmm, I mused, 'Maybe we should move here after Forks.' Finally the limo stopped, stepping out I hoped we had the wrong address. The house was a red brick townhome, but that wasn't the problem. On the top of the house was a huge spaceship-like building and a giant sign that said Fenton Works.

I glanced down at the information about the family. The sheet read: Last Name: Fenton, sadly, this was the place.

I stepped up to the front door, turned the key, and walked inside. The inside was, at least, clean, but it was nothing spectacular and most certainly had a lived-in feel about it.

I climbed the stairs which lead to a boy's room which was blue and covered in NASA posters and posters from some band called Dumpty Humpty, which I had never heard of. The bed was unmade and food wrappers were strewn all over along with dirty clothes. The next room belonged to a girl, it was a hot pink color, however, at least it was clean. The bed was made with fluffy pillows and a worn-out stuffed animal (which reminded me Renesme) and there was nothing on the floor. The shelves were stocked with research and college-level reading material, clearly this girl pushed herself way too hard in school. I knew I would need to show her how to let loose and have a little fun. I peeked open her closet, and clicked my tongue in disapproval, most of what she owned were jean capris and black, quarter-sleeved, t-shirts. She might be smart but she obviously needed a lesson in shopping.

Down the hall I found the guest room and placed my suitcase in there. Back downstairs I found the master bedroom, kitchen, living room, and a staircase that lead down to the basement.

The basement was something out of a Frankenstein movie, with pieces and parts to various projects all over the place and illuminated by an eerie green glow from some kind of portal.

Shaking my head, I climbed back up the stairs to the kitchen where found the rules.

"Hello, we are the Fentons. My name is Maddie and I live here with my husband Jack and our two kids Daniel and Jasmine. My husband and I are professional ghost hunters," it read.

'What?' I blinked, a little confused. 'There are no such things as ghosts,' however there was a hint of doubt to this theory because, after all, my family and I are vampires. I continued reading.

"Most of our time is devoted to inventing new ghost contraptions, however we work from home so that we can spend as much time with our children as possible. Both of our kids have curfews, Daniel (although he prefers to be called Danny), is 14 and has a ten o'clock curfew while Jasmine (who prefers to be called Jazz), is 17 and has an eleven thirty curfew. Both of our kids are expected to be in bed and asleep by midnight. They are also asked to assist in some of the cleaning as part of their chores, however I do allow their rooms to be however they want, after all, they are their rooms. Jazz gets good grades in school so I do not usually check her homework, however, Danny does not get very good grades and is not allowed to leave the house with his friends until his homework is complete. The two people who are most likely to stop by for Danny are his friends Tucker and Sam."

When I had finished reading I heard a car pull up outside, it was time to meet my new family.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Edward POV-

We saw the limo pull into the driveway from where we were parked down the street. I could hear her thoughts from here.

"What's she thinking, Edward?" Bella asked.

"She thinks the house is beautiful but museum-like, that all of our rooms are way too grown up, and she keeps making a big deal over our closets," I told them, a smile forming on the edge of my lips. My expression changed when she started reading the rules.

"What is it, Edward?" Jasper asked.

"She doesn't like that we are all together, and she thinks we have no discipline," I announced. Everyone scoffed but no one said anything.

"She just finished, let's go now," I told them and we drove home, parking in the driveway. I saw her step out of the front door and come to meet us.

"Hello, everyone I am Maddie Fenton," she smiled at us. Carlisle introduced himself.

'_A blue HAZMAT suit? Seriously? Clearly we need to go shopping this woman never should have been allowed out of the house, much less to meet someone else's family in that thing?' _Alice ranted in her head, but plastered on a false smile and introduced herself and Jasper to the woman.

"I'm Edward and this is Bella," I introduced us, followed by Jacob introducing himself and Renesme.

Emmett picked the poorly-dressed woman up in a big bear hug, surprising her.

"I'm Emmett," he grinned.

"Rosalie," Rosalie muttered coolly, pushing passed the woman and into our house.

"Well, that's everyone, " Carlisle announced, "Should we go inside?"

Maddie POV-

I stepped out of the house just as they pulled up. All the cars seemed to be very expensive, although I could not name them (that was always Danny and Tucker's thing). They were all very beautiful and completely flawless with matching golden eyes. One at a time they introduced themselves to me. Carlisle was the first, followed by a sweet pixie girl and her boyfriend, then Edward and Bella.

Suddenly I was taken off guard in a massive hug by Emmett, when he finally set me down I felt slightly woozy from the lack of oxygen had just received and barely heard Rosalie mutter her name as she walked passed me and into the house.

"Well, that's everyone," Carlisle finally said, "Should we go inside?"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6-

Danny POV-

Currently we were parked in the RV around the corner, waiting for the new mom to finish her evaluation of our home.

"…and I get to blather on about ghosts!" my dad said excitedly.

"Dad, please don't," Jazz whined, but he was not listening. I stood up and walked to the bathroom at the back of the RV. Closing the door behind me, I changed from Danny Fenton to Danny Phantom and phased through the ceiling, floating over to our house. Turning invisible, I phased through the house and watched her. She was beautiful, completely flawless, with piercing golden eyes. She walked into Jazz's room and muttered something that sounded like,

"This girl doesn't have any fun." I resisted the urge to laugh out loud, she had no idea how right she was. She went over to the closet and clicked her tongue at Jazz's fashion sense, before leaving Jazz's room. She placed her stuff in the guest room before heading downstairs. In the basement, I saw her eyes widen at the ghost portal and my parents various projects before shaking her head and going back upstairs. Then she began to read the rules. I heard her scoff at something, which I guessed was the part about my parents being professional ghost hunters. Finally, she finished and I flew back to the RV, emerged from the bathroom, and told my dad she had probably finished by now.

When we arrived we all shook her hand. Her hand was really cold but only slightly colder than my hand which was only cold because I am half dead.

Hmm, I wondered as we led her into the house.

Esme POV-

I suppose _car_ was the wrong word. It was actually an silver RV with green al over it and (were those weapons?) attached to it. A large man in an orange jumpsuit emerged from the driver's seat and took her small hand in his own.

"Hello, I am Jack Fenton," he grinned at me, still shaking my hand.

"Dad," the daughter scolded. He released and then she shook my hand, "Hi, I'm Jasmine, but you can call me Jazz," she smiled at me.

Finally the younger boy approached me. "Hi, I'm Danny," he told me, the expression on his face turned from indifferent to confused as he shook my hand. I, too was confused. His hand was almost as cold as mine was, which happened almost never with humans. As we went inside, I wondered why his hand would be so cold.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Maddie POV-

"So…Mrs. Fenton," Carlisle cleared his throat, "what is it that you do for a living?"

I chuckled, sure that they wouldn't believe me if I told them, but I decided to tell them anyway. "My husband, Jack, and I are professional ghost hunters."

They all blinked in surprise, even Rosalie, who had been standing in the kitchen, edged a little closer to the living room.

"Um, hum," Carlisle coughed, "That's very…interesting." Rosalie scoffed.

"So what can you tell us about your business," Carlisle inquired.

"Well, it's actually a pretty flourishing business because Amity Park is one of the most haunted cities in the country," I told them.

"So…weird stuff happens there all the time," Alice asked.

"Pretty much. Ghost attacks happen all the time, so much so that drills have been implemented for the attacks," I shrugged.

"But aren't ghosts just like…dead people," most of his family gave him a harsh glare for that.

'_Maybe they are sensitive about the dead?' _I thought, then I saw Edward pucker his lips like he was trying not to laugh.

"How have they become so violent?" Emmett finished.

"I don't have any idea, it's impossible to reason with a ghost or even understand them," my thoughts immediately jumped to Danny Phantom who has been seen both terrorizing and helping the city.

"Anyway," Carlisle, interrupted my thoughts, "How many kids do you have?"

"Two," I told him, "Well, technically three if you count my husband. But anyway, I have a girl named Jasmine who is 17 and a boy named Danny who is 14." Everyone simply nodded at this.

"So," said, Carlisle, standing up to break the awkward silence, "Who's hungry?"

Edward POV-

Later that evening we held a conference in Alice's closet.

"She seems nice, just a little weird," Bella shrugged.

"With absolutely no fashion sense!' Alice shrieked, earning a nod from Renesme and Rosalie.

"I pulled up Amity Park online," Jasper cleared his throat, "She was right it is the most haunted city in the country."

Emmett pulled the computer out of Jasper's hands.

"Apparently they have some hero called Danny Phantom, otherwise known as Inviso-Bill," Emmett chuckled.

"I think I have heard of him," Jacob interjected, "I have a cousin named Sam who lives in Amity Park. We don't talk very often but I think she has mentioned Danny Phantom before."

"I heard her thinking something about that, she can't seem to decide if he is a menace or a hero," I told them.

"He looks like a hero to me, look at all of these pictures," Emmett said, showing us the online images of Danny Phantom warding off ghost attacks while still managing to protect the citizens.

Then a mischievous look crossed Emmett's face.

"What do you say we pull some pranks on the new mother," he grinned.

Mentally, I heard everyone agree to pranking Maddie, slowing seeing the smiles cross their faces.

"Okay," said Emmett, "Here's what we're gonna do…"

**Bum Bum Bummmm. What do you think Emmett will do?**

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	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

Danny POV-

"So, Mrs. Cullen," Jazz started to make conversation, glaring at me, daring me to leave the room, "What do you do for a living?"

"Well, I actually am a stay at home mom, but my husband is a doctor at the local hospital," she told us.

"Oh, cool," Jazz smiled, "How many kids do you have?"

"Since Carlisle and I are unable to have children, we have adopted eight," she replied.

'_Eight? Holy crap! No wonder she is a stay at home mom,' _I thought.

"Wow…that's…great," Jazz replied, just as stunned as I was.

Esme nodded. "We have Edward who is 17, Bella who is 17, Jasper and Rosalie who are twins and are both 18, Alice who is 18, Emmett who is 18, Jacob who is 17, and Renesme who is 16."

We all blinked in surprise, not quite sure how to respond to that.

Suddenly, Tucker and Sam burst through the door.

"Danny, there's a…" she stopped seeing my father's eyes light up at what he hoped the next word would be and Esme arched an eyebrow, "…spider. A big spider." She finished. My dad slumped in disappointment.

"Hello, I'm Esme," she stood up, shaking their hands, "you must be Sam and Tucker."

"Yes, ma'am," Sam smiled, "But, if you'll excuse us, I really need Danny to come and kill a spider." Sam grabbed my wrist and towed me out the front door. "It was nice meeting you by the way," she called behind us as we closed the front door.

Esme POV-

"They seem like nice kids," Esme smiled, sweetly. '_Odd, but nice, then again, I am in no position to judge.'_

"Yes, they're great kids, Danny's best friends," Jack bellowed, "Now who's hungry, we have fudge, lot's and lot's of fudge."

I tried not to cringe, I'm sure I could fake eating for now and then go spit it out later.

Back to Danny POV-

"What's the problem, guys," I asked, once we were safely out of earshot.

"Skulker is downtown," Sam told me.

"Again?" I asked, I've already beat him three times this week. Sam shrugged. Then my two best friends covered me. "Goin' ghost," I yelled my classic battle cry, changing from Danny Fenton to Danny Phantom.

I flew off towards downtown, Tucker and Sam were running directly below me, Fenton Thermos in hand.

"Haven't you had enough for one week, Skulker," I yelled behind him.

"I am not in the mood to deal with you today, Ghost-Child," the robotic ghost told me.

"Skulker, in case you haven't noticed, you don't get to choose, you're in my town, you deal with me," I told him.

"Fine then. If it's a fight you want, whelp, it's a fight you'll get," he announced, firing a missile out of his armor. I dodged the missile which exploded where I had been floating.

"You really have to work on your aim, Skulker," I retorted, firing a ghost ray at him., "Sam, toss me the thermos," I told her. She threw the thermos up to me and I easily sucked Skulker inside.

I flew off, ducked into an ally, and changed back to Danny Fenton., running up to my friends.

"Okay, so the woman staying with you is from Forks right," Sam questioned. Tucker laughed, and we ignored him.

"Yeah," I replied, confused.

"Well," she told me, "I had been trying to figure out why that name sounded so familiar. Then I remembered, have a cousin who lives on the reservation of La Push, which is not to far from Forks."

"Really?" I asked, "What's his name?"

"Jacob," she replied.

"Esme said she had an adopted son named Jacob," I pondered.

"What was Esme's last name?" Sam asked, suddenly.

"Cullen," I told her.

"I know Jacob is dating a girl with the last name of Cullen, I think he said her name was…Renesme," Sam told us.

"That was the name of another one of her adopted kids," Danny realized, "Something doesn't add up?"

"No kidding, that doesn't make any sense," Tucker agreed.

"How old is your cousin?" I asked.

"He should be like twenty five now, but I swear it's like he doesn't age he still looks-" Sam started but I cut her off.

"Seventeen?" I supplied.

"Yeah, how did you know?" she wondered.

"Because that's how old Esme said he was," I told her.

"Okay, something's up. I'm gonna do some research," Tuck suggested.

"Good idea, but right now I better get home before they start to wonder why it has taken me twenty minutes to kill a spider," I told them.

"Okay, see you later Danny," they replied in unison.

I ran home and entered the front door, where everyone was waiting for me to eat dinner. I smiled sheepishly.

"It was a big spider."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Emmett POV-

"So here's what we're gonna do, and I already have the perfect idea," I grinned like a maniac.

Edward groaned, reading my thoughts.

"Well, she is a ghost hunter, right?" I asked them, they all nodded, "So that means we need to pull a ghost prank."

"Okay," Jasper agreed, "What do you have in mind?"

"Tonight, when Carlisle is still at work, and we are all eating dinner, something will make a noise upstairs and I'll tell her how someone died when this house was being built and their spirit still lingers here. Then, later on, a loud noise will wake her up and then she'll come downstairs to see a 'ghost' and a whole bunch of fake blood everywhere," I told them.

"Ooh, good idea," Alice agreed.

"So it's agreed, then, we will begin at dinner," I chuckled.

Edward POV-

A few minutes before dinner, we had everything planned out. I had the remote for my CD player in my back pocket so that I could turn on Bella's lullaby during dinner. I really didn't want to use the song I had written for my Bella as creepy horror music but it did make it sound like someone was playing my piano upstairs, plus Bella had agreed to it.

Step one: Make normal conversation.

"So Mrs. Fenton," Jacob began, his thoughts said that he was clearly not enjoying her cooking (which was extremely uncommon, because the wolves will eat anything), "Do you know a Sam Manson in Amity Park?"

Maddie was surprised, and judging by her thoughts clearly knew the girl he was talking about. I saw a flash of a Goth-looking girl, with black hair and purple eyes.

"Yes, I do, she is one of my son, Danny's best friends," Maddie answered, "How do you know her?"

"She is my cousin," Jacob replied.

"If you have other family, might I ask how you became adopted," Maddie inquired.

"The Cullens are close family friends, and since I'm already dating Renesme it seemed like a perfect fit," Jacob told her, then added, "Besides, I'm pretty sure the Mansons don't like me very much anyway."

"I understand," she smiled, reading her thoughts, I realized that they didn't much like her either, they only put up with her because Danny and Sam were such good friends, and dating.

I took right now to be the perfect moment to push the button on the remote. Bella's lullaby drifted sweetly through the hallways and down the stairwell t where we sat in the kitchen.

"What's that?" Maddie asked surprised.

"It could be Charlotte," Bella piped up, making it sound like there was some fear in her voice.

"Who's Charlotte?" Mrs. Fenton asked.

"Well, before this house was built, there was an eighteenth-century farmhouse in this spot. Charlotte lived there with her parents, but when her mom passed away, her dad would often get drunk and beat Charlotte. She never told anybody. But one day, Charlotte was murdered. The police came, and found blood everywhere, but they never found her body. A few days later, her father was found murdered in a ditch not to far from here. Everyone around here thinks that it was Charlotte's ghost that murdered him, looking for revenge. Some people still think that this house is haunted," Emmett spun his story.

"Well what do you all think," Maddie questioned.

"Oh, we don't think," Renesme added, "We know that dead people still live here."

On that cue, I stopped the music. An eerie silence flooded the halls, except for everybody's thoughts. Some were silently laughing at Renesme's comment, Emmett was congratulating himself for a job well done, but the loudest thoughts of all were Maddie's.

'_It's awful what happened to that poor girl, but to be powerful enough to kill someone means that she is really powerful and vengeful. She could still be dangerous, it's a good thing I brought some of my ghost hunting equipment,' _she thought.

I nodded to Emmett, the trap was set.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

Esme POV-

Okay, so today is the first official day of the swap and I have to do everything by the Fenton's rules…oh joy.

"Six thirty wake up to help the kids get ready for school." Not a problem considering I do not sleep, "Note, Danny is often hard to wake up." Good to know I suppose.

I opened Danny's bedroom door and there he was, sprawled out like a…well, regular teenage boy. I turned off his alarm, which had been blaring for ten minutes.

"Wake up, Danny" I tried, it didn't work, I should have known it would have been harder than that. (Of course how could I, I don't have teenage boys who sleep, well except for Jacob and most of the time someone else woke him up.) Next I tried shaking his shoulders lightly, but gradually shaking them harder, nothing.

'_Wow, this boy sleeps like the dead, and I should know,' _I thought. If it wasn't for the slow rise and fall of his chest, and the fact that I could both hear his heartbeat and smell his blood, I would swear he was dead. However, now that I thought about it, his heart rate did seem a bit slower than most and his blood smelled…off somehow. I shook my head and continued reading the guidelines.

"As a last resort, a cup of ice water always works."

'_Really?' _I wondered, thinking that this was a rather cruel way of waking someone up, however I shrugged, went downstairs, grabbed a glass of ice water, and threw it on the poor boy.

Immediately Danny sprang up. It looked as if Danny hadn't gotten any sleep at all, there were large bags under his eyes and he just looked tired.

"Good morning, Danny," I exclaimed.

He mumbled back something that I think was supposed to be "good morning" but instead sounded like, "Gruff muselogoff."

Next I went to make sure Jazz was awake, I got to her room just in time to meet her coming out.

"Good morning, Mrs. Cullen," she greeted me cheerily.

"Good morning, Jasmine," I replied.

She passed by me and went downstairs. I read the next thing on the list.

"No need to wake Jack, normally the smell of breakfast cooking will do the trick. In the mornings I usually make the boys breakfast while Jazz usually just pours herself a bowl of cereal." This part might be the only problem considering I never cooked.

I went downstairs, stuck some toast in the toaster and then found some frozen bacon in the freezer and popped it in the microwave. Right on cue both Danny and Jack emerged into the kitchen, sitting down at the table. The microwave beeped and the toast popped out, I set out three plates, one for myself, and two for the boys.

I divvied out the bacon and toast, Danny seemed to avoid the toast. I wondered why until I looked down at my own plate, the toast had a picture of Jack Fenton's face on it. I pushed the toast aside too, and couldn't blame Danny after all, I wouldn't be able to eat anything with my dad's face on it either.

While I pretended to eat my bacon (wiping my mouth and spitting it into the napkin), I read the next thing on the list.

"Danny and Jazz walk to school and then I go downstairs to assist Jack," I wondered what I could possibly do, I didn't know a thing about ghost hunting.

Soon the kids left.

"Bye Dad, by Mrs. Cullen," Jazz called. Danny gave an agreeable grunt and nodded, before they both left for school.

Danny POV-

"Hey Tuck," I called catching up to him and Sam, Jazz right on my heels, "Did you get any of that research on Esme."

"What?" Jazz yelled, "What research? Are you serious Danny, she hasn't done anything worth investigating."

"Just, parts of her story don't add up Jazz," Sam told her.

Jazz pursed her lips, unable to think of anything to say.

"So what did you get," I asked again.

"The Cullens have only lived in Forks for a few years but I have found records of a Cullen family in different parts of the country and the world tracing back many years, " Tucker stated.

"There are probably lots of Cullens in the world, that's no reason to jump to conclusions-" Jazz started.

"Wait, you didn't let me finish. Based on that list of there names that you gave me yesterday I was unable to find any birth certificates or adoption records for most of them, except for Jacob's birth certificate, although he still had no adoption records," Tucker continued.

"Well that's easy, the other kids were probably born and adopted under a different name," Jazz smirked.

"I thought that too," he countered, Jazz's smirk fell, "so I cross referenced the names with other birth certificates but the only ones I could find were from a long time ago, like a really long time ago, of the ones I could find the earliest belonged to Jasper and was from the early eighteen hundreds. I couldn't even find Carlisle," Tucker explained.

"Well…that's weird," Sam said.

"Wait, there's more," Tucker told us, "I was able to find death records for everyone but Carlisle, Jacob, Bella, and Renesme."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 12:

Maddie POV-

The story that the kids told me seemed legitimate, which meant that there was a high possibility that there was a ghost in this house. Because I had my ghost sensor turned off, it would not have alerted me of the presence of a ghost. After dinner I quickly excused myself to go turn on my ghost detector. Jack had originally created the ghost sensor to identify that a ghost was around based on their ectoplasmic signature, but the machine can get confused by other things, and for some reason, the machine kept saying that Danny was a ghost. That is why I altered the ghost sensor to identify a ghost based solely on the presence of death.

When I turned on the sensor, I beeped and went ballistic, like the presence of death was all over this house. There was definitely a ghost here.

That night, as per the instructions, I told the kids to go to sleep and then went back down to go to sleep in my own room.

Emmett POV-

At about one o'clock in the morning, we were ready. We had had a ton of fake blood left from a previous prank and had poured and splattered it all over a set of white sheets which we laid on the floors and draped over the couches. Thankfully, tonight was one of the night that Carlisle worked nearly all night at the hospital. Alice had volunteered to be the one soaked in flour, claiming she had a 'perfect nightgown, that would, like totally make her look like a ghost.' So right now, she was in that perfect nightgown, with her arm tucked inside and a fake arm that made it look like her arm had been ripped off. There was fake blood on the nightgown and dried fake blood on her hand. Her hair had been soaked in flour along with her skin. We had even gotten Alice some white-out contacts to make her eyes look glazed over. Hidden fans were placed around the room to lift up the sheets in a scary way.

Eerie music played, softly, not enough for her to really notice, but enough to set the mood. And fog machines were strategically placed around the room.

"Alright, now to wake up the new mother," I said, evilly. Using a breakaway vase that we happened to have left over, also from another prank, I crashed it down on the floor with a loud crash. We all immediately heard her get up. The rest of us hid, leaving Alice in the center of the room.

Back to Maddie POV-

I heard a loud crash, grabbed my trusty ecto-saber-extender-thingy and an ecto-pistol, and slowly crept out of my room. I was still in my pajamas, the personalized, I Love Ghost Hunting ones that Jack got me for my birthday.

The living room looked like the scene out of a horror film, with blood everywhere and eerie fog and lights flickering, while a ghostly breeze lifted sheets, and the temperature was so cold could practically see my breath. The I saw the ghost, she was obviously young, maybe seventeen or eighteen, but she was missing an arm and her eyes were glazed over and her whole body was a ghostly white. She acted erratically, wobbling from one side of the room to the other, letting out pathetic ghostly moans.

Without a word, I charged into action, facing the ghost head on I attempted to attack her with my ecto-saber-extender-thingy but she easily dodged, an evil grin crossing her face. She held up one hand and suddenly, I felt anger and betrayal and sadness, everything she had been feeling when she died. I shook it off, backing up a few steps, I fired a warning shot with the ecto-pistol. The ghost seemed unfazed. Then I fired one into her chest. The ghost looked surprised, and fell to the floor. I stood over her.

"Wait! Wait!" she shrieked, "It's just me."

I recognized the voice as Alice's. Then I realized that I had just been a victim of a prank. Slowly the others came out from behind the furniture.

"What was that thing?" Alice asked, directing her attention at the ecto-pistol.

"It's an ecto pistol," I told her.

"It hurt…" she told me. I frowned at this, it was not supposed to be able to hurt humans, maybe I had it calibrated wrong.

"All you alright? Where did I shoot you?" I asked suddenly concerned.

"In my arm," she told me, slowly taking out her arm from beneath the nightgown. On her arm there was a nasty black spot, but it was already fading, it would be alright by the morning.

"Oh, Alice I'm sorry," I told her, "I thought you were a ghost."

"Yeah," she laughed, "That was kind of the idea." I saw her glare at Emmett.

"Alright, all of you, back to bed," I shooed them away.

"Are you alright?" I asked her again.

"I'm fine, goodnight," she smiled at me before heading upstairs to her room.

I went back to bed. That was an extremely well-done prank. They had the special effects just right to make it seem as if there actually was a ghost in the house, but what I couldn't seem to figure out was how they had been able to manipulate my emotions like that.

Edward POV-

I read Alice's thoughts as she fell down, it had actually hurt her, which was strange because that does not usually happen. Now the mark on her arm, was similar to a bruise that a human would have except it was more like a burn. The burn was starting to fade already, but it was amazing, in itself that it had not already disappeared.

Alice continued glaring at Emmett.

"What? It's not my fault, you volunteered, remember?" he said defensively.

"Yeah, and besides shouldn't you have been able to see yourself going down before it happened," Jacob retorted.

"I saw myself go down, but I thought I was acting, I mean honestly who would have thought that some ghost weapon would hurt us," Alice stated.

"I don't know, maybe it is calibrated to work on anything that is dead, not just ghosts," Jacob suggested.

"Maybe we should try it on you," Rosalie snapped.

"Stop fighting," I interrupted them, "right now it's just important that we pretend to go to sleep, and Renesme, you really need to get some sleep."

"Yes, daddy," she frowned, heading off to her bedroom, with Jacob in tow.

The rest of us headed off to our respective bedrooms, hoping that tomorrow morning, she would not decide to tell Carlisle. Then again, the cameras that had been placed in the living room caught our prank and we would, no doubt, get in trouble anyway once this show aired.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

Maddie POV-

Finally, today was the third day of the swap. Time to make the rules, my way.

I had decided not to tell Carlisle about the stunt that the kids had pulled on me, so the next day, when he asked how they were I lied and told them that we had a wonderful night. Even, though Carlisle would no doubt get them in trouble once he saw the show air, I decided to spare them the punishment, for now.

All of the kids blinked at me, I grinned back at them, I might not have told their dad, but I had my own plans for revenge, starting with the rule changes. If it's possible for someone to look both annoyed and intrigued, that was the look on Edward's face right now.

'_It's so weird the way he looks at me, it's like he can read my mind,' _I thought, now Edward seemed like he was trying not to laugh.

After breakfast, and after Carlisle left, I collected all of the kids in the living room to begin my new rules.

"Okay, first off, there will be some wardrobe changes," Alice brightened up for a second, then a glassy look appeared in front of her eyes, then she whined, slumping down in her chair.

'_Weird,' _I noticed.

"Secondly, there will be some changes to the rooms," everyone groaned at this.

"And, thirdly, starting at noon, I will be teaching all of you the art of ghost fighting, and chores will be done in this house by someone other than me or your mom," I beamed, they all frowned.

Then we headed upstairs for me to start my first two changes.

"Okay," I started, "From now on, you will no longer have the sleeping situations that you have now. At home I would never allow that from my own children and I will not approve of it from you all either. So the new sleeping arrangements will be, Bella and Renesme; Rosalie and Alice; Edward and Jasper; and Emmett and Jacob." They all glared at me, and maybe they had some right to (I was enjoying this way too much).

"Come on," I motioned with my hands, "start moving your stuff into the other rooms.

Edward POV-

None of us were happy about the new room changes, and yeah, she was definitely enjoying this way too much, but we also deserved it for the prank we pulled last night. However, as far as room changes go, and as much as I didn't want to be away from Bella, they could have been much worse. I can't even imagine what might have happened if she had put Bella and Rosalie together, but let's just say that there might not have been a house or a secret left for Esme to come back to by the time the swap was over.

It hadn't taken us long to move the furniture and our clothes around.

"Okay," Mrs. Fenton announced, "Now that that is done, I want all of you to put your clothes in these," she said taking out black trash bags. Alice whimpered. The rest of us grumpily obeyed, shoving our clothes into the trash bags, and pushing them down the stairs to join the rest. When we finally got to Alice's room, Jasper had to hold her back while the rest of us stuffed all the clothes from her giant closet into the trash bags. Her closet took a total of thirty-five industrial-size trash bags to completely clear out her closet.

"Fine," Rosalie exclaimed, "You've taken all our clothes, now what are we going to wear?"

"I'm glad you asked," Mrs. Fenton said with a smirk, still enjoying our torture, "You all will be wearing these." Then out of her own black trash bag she pulled out HAZMAT suits in every color.

I think if Alice could faint, she would have. Instead she let out a pained squeak and dropped to her knees.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Rosalie yelled, "There is no way I am wearing one of those hideous things, and _you_ cannot make me!" she stomped down the stairs.

Maddie followed after her. "Now Rosalie, you listen to me!" Rose stopped and turned on her heel to face Mrs. Fenton, who despite the 'I'm-going-to-rip-out-your-throat' stare that Rosalie was giving her, stood strong. "You are all on this show, whether you wanted to be or not," she cast a very pointed look at Emmett, "But even still, I know that you know that things would be changed. For these two weeks, I am your mother which means that you will obey my rules no matter how ridiculous or hideous they are, then when I leave you can go right back to being the spoiled girl that you are. However, right now, you will do as I say," she finished.

We were all stunned, and now felt a new respect for Maddie. Very few people could go toe-to-toe with Rosalie and even fewer (except for us, of course) could call Rosalie spoiled and live to tell the tale. Reading Rosalie's thoughts, she wanted to kill her, big time, but digging a little deeper, I found that, even Rosalie, found slight respect for the woman who dared to challenge her.

After a few long minutes of the staring contest between Rosalie and Maddie, Rose finally sighed, in surrender, and joined the rest of us.

"Now that that is settled," Maddie smirked, and began handing out our HAZMAT suits. After a while, she had finally convinced everyone to put them on. Bella's was a light blue color, Renesme's was a light pink, Rosalie's was red, Alice's was yellow, Emmett's was orange, Jasper's was hunter green, Jacob's was brown, and mine was dark blue.

We looked like a spandex rainbow.

"See, that's better, now, who's hungry," Maddie beamed. Sighing we al followed her downstairs. It was then that the rest of the pack decided to barge in. They were in the middle of a loud conversation, of course without their shirts, and it wasn't until a few seconds later that they noticed us.

Silence.

Then they all broke out into fits of laughter. '_They look like a rainbow!' 'Wow, we should have signed them up for wife swap years ago!' 'I'm gonna have a hard time respecting Jacob now!' 'Rosalie looks like a tomato!' _

Jacob let out a low growl, and slowly the laughter faded.

"If you're quite finished," Maddie crossed her arms at the pack, "Put these on, I will not put up with a bunch of shirtless guys barging in," she clucked in disappointment and handed them each a black t-shirt. Inside Maddie's mind, I saw the t-shirts before the wolves put them on, they read Fenton Works in neon letters with a picture of Maddie's husband's face on the front.

"Um…why is there a man's face on this shirt?" Seth asked, causing us all to laugh.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

Esme POV-

Finally the third day of the swap, now I can start changing things around here.

Today was Saturday, so I let the kids sleep in, especially Danny, but even when he woke up, the boy still looked exhausted.

'_Hmm,' _I thought, '_What if he sneaks out at night? Maybe I should keep an eye on him.'_

When I finally had the whole family gathered in the living room, I told them about my changes.

"Today, we will be going shopping, you all wear the same things all the time and I think it's time you got some variety in your closets," I beamed. Jazz looked like she was analyzing this idea, judging by her facial expressions, she seemed to be weighing the pros and cons of the situation. Silently I added, '_And that means I won't have to see Jack in a HAZMAT suit anymore.'_

Before we left, there was no way I was going to be seen riding in that monstrosity of an RV, so I called a rental car to pick us up. A nice, black, BMW SUV pulled up (I don't know what it is called, that much is usually left to the guys at my house) but Danny seemed to approve.

"Aww," Jack whined, "Can't we take the RV, I just added a new ecto-converter."

"No," I stated simply, ushering them into the much nicer car. I allowed Jack to drive, because, like the rest of my family, I drive much faster than normal humans, and I didn't really want to give Jack and the kids a heart attack. I immediately regretted my decision.

At least when drive, _I _know I'm not going to hit anything or run a red light or swerve through several lanes of stopped traffic on the highway. For the first time since I died, I actually thought that I was going to die.

Finally, we arrived at the local mall. Jazz and Danny threw themselves out of the back seat, looking more than a little green. I calmly stepped out of the passenger's seat, and followed the two sick kids and their beaming and laughing father inside.

Inside the mall, was my domain.

I grabbed Danny and Jazz by the wrists and immediately tuned out their father's blathering as I pulled them to a store. Once inside the store, I quickly plucked off random garments, that I thought would fit Danny and Jazz. I handed them their respective bundles of clothing and shooed them off to the dressing rooms. Sitting on a bench in front of the changing rooms I waited for them to come out. Jazz came out first in a cute, belted, white and floral sundress, with a scooped neckline. The dress was nice, but just casual enough for her to wear to school, and I must say, it fit her figure perfectly.

"Ooh Jasmine," I grinned, motioning for her to spin around, "You look beautiful!"

"Thanks," she replied, blushing a little. I couldn't help but notice that she stood a little straighter and glowed a little more as she examined herself in the dress. Then she pulled at the price tag and winced. "Ouch, that's way too expensive," she sighed.

I waved it off, "Think nothing of it, I'm buying today. And besides, my daughter has a closet bigger than her room, full of more expensive clothes than that. Jasmine's eyes widened with gratitude and surprise but she didn't argue anymore.

Next Danny stepped out in black skinny jeans and a red and black t-shirt.

"Well, that looks nice, Danny," I complimented him. He shrugged and looked at Jazz, who was still outside of her dressing room.

"Wow, Jazz," he blinked.

"What is it too much!" she asked him, suddenly worried.

"No, no," he quickly told her, "It looks great on you."

"Thanks little brother," she replied, going back into the changing room. Danny went back into his changing room too.

Jazz came out in a pair of light blue jeans, a dark blue V-neck t-shirt with a white, lacy, tank-top underneath, while Danny came out in dark blue jeans and a white and black, plaid button-down shirt.

"You both look very nice," I told them. They smiled, looked in the mirror and quickly retreated back into their rooms. We ended up leaving that store with both of Jasmine's outfits, Danny's blue jeans and the red and the plaid t-shirts.

After several more stores and about ten more outfits each, we were ready to move onto the much bigger challenge: their dad.

We found Jack, big surprise, in the food court.

"Ready to go?" he asked, getting up.

"Not quite," I told him, "I said wardrobe changes for the entire family, and that includes you."

Jack seemed confused for a second before it finally dawned on him that we would be changing his HAZMAT suit. He slumped back into his seat. Jazz shook her head, grabbing one of his wide wrists and motioning for Danny to grab the other. They, with some difficultly, pulled him out of his seat and to the Big and Tall store, perfect for Jack, considering he is both.

Once again, I went through the aisles, pulling different outfits. I forced them into Jack's arms and pushed him into the open dressing room. Danny, Jazz, and I, along with all the bags from our previous purchases, squeezed onto the, surprisingly little bench (I mean come on it is Big and Tall) in front of the dressing rooms. Jack came out in a pair of jeans and a neon yellow t-shirt (one that I am quite certain I did not include in the pile). He looked like Big Bird.

"Umm…" Danny and Jazz said sharing a look.

"No," I bluntly stated, "No, no, no, no, no. Go back in there and put on something that _I_ picked out for you." Jack's giant smile fell, and he turned and went back into the changing room like a sad puppy.

Finally he came out in some darker jeans and a black button-down shirt that had smaller white pin-stripes down and across it making the illusion of plaid. It looked much better.

"Better," I approved, Danny and Jazz nodded in agreement. Seeming surprised at his kids' approval of his wardrobe, Jack plunged into the shopping experience.

We came out of the store with three pairs of jeans, the black and white shirt, a red and black plaid shirt, a blue polo, a grey and black rugby shirt, a red and black rugby shirt, a black polo shirt, and, regrettably (because he paid for it himself, considering refused to buy it, and I couldn't talk him out of it) the neon yellow shirt.

Overall, it was a very successful day at the mall.

'_My work, fashion wise at least, is done here,_' I thought proudly to myself. We were just getting ready to leave when I thought I saw a blue mist come out of Danny's mouth, he cussed in what would have been an inaudible tone if it weren't for my enhanced hearing.

Then we heard the screaming erupt from the food court behind us.

"Ghost!"

**Bum Bum Bummmm I hope you liked that cliffhanger. **


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

Esme POV-

Needless to say, I became very confused, very quickly.

"GHOST!" Jack bellowed at the top of his lungs pulling out a…(was that a fishing rod?) and charging off in all his overweight-glory toward the screams. Jazz shot Danny a look that obviously said 'do-something' although I didn't know what he could possibly do.

"Umm…I have to go to the bathroom!" he shouted, running away. I stared at Jazz who, in return, gave me a very 'I'm-pretending-to-be-nonchalant-like-I-have-know-idea-what's-going-on' look.

"Does this happen a lot around here?" I questioned. Wow, if a town could get used to ghosts attacks being a frequent occurrence, then they would never notice if a family of vegetarian vampires moved in.

'_Yep,' _I confirmed it, '_this will definitely be one of the places we end up living in the future.'_

Jazz shrugged. "More than you can imagine, but you kind of get used to it. Now, we should go, before my dad hurts himself." I nodded in agreement and turned to follow her but than I remembered something.

"Wait, what about Danny?" I asked.

"Don't worry about him, he'll catch up with us sooner or later," She called back, already a few paces in front of me, once again acting nonchalant. We jogged (me, slowing my pace to that of a normal human) with the Wife Swap camera crew right on our heels (wow, I had almost forgotten they were here), and the camera bobbing up and down as the camera tried to keep it steady as he ran.

When we arrived on the scene in the food court I immediately saw the black outline of a woman, glowing, in mid air. The second thing I saw was a boy, probably between fourteen and sixteen, facing off against the woman, also IN MID AIR. Thirdly, I noticed, Jack Fenton, on the floor beneath one of the tables, tangled in a mess of fishing line.

"_Well," _I thought, "_At least he's safe.'_

"Who is that?" the camera man asked suddenly, funny, I wasn't aware that they were allowed to speak while filming.

"Which one?" Jazz replied.

"Um…both?" the camera man replied.

Jazz nodded, "Well the woman, that's Spectra. She is a ghost that feeds on the emotions of the living to make herself more powerful so that she can remain young and beautiful forever. However, the kid on the right, that's Amity Park's own resident ghost hero, Danny Phantom," was it just me or did I detect a touch of pride in her voice. The cameraman's eyes grew wide as he focused in on the floating specters as they sparred off, throwing bursts of energy at each other.

I listened closely, trying to hear the exchange between the ghosts. They exchange that was occurring between them seemed like a cheesy superhero, witty banter, straight out of a comic book, however the voice of the boy sounded oddly familiar. The two ghosts exchanged angered questions and insults, which I paid very little attention to. But, as I listened closer, I heard something that I didn't expect: a heartbeat. 'Danny Phantom' had a heartbeat, which, although it was very faint, meant that he couldn't be completely dead, right? I listened to see if the ghost called 'Spectra' had one too. No, all she had was a static-y, white noise sound accompanied with her shadowish form.

Danny POV-

Quickly I made up some canned excuse that I had to 'use the bathroom' and raced away from my sister and my, no doubt confused, new mother. Slipping into the bathroom, I slammed the stall door behind me, immediately changing from Fenton to Phantom. I phased out of the bathroom, flying to the scene.

Once there, I saw Spectra, in her form of a shadow, which she used to terrorize the emotions of innocent people. I hadn't seen her around since she became a giant snot-ball of my dad's DNA. Cleary she had figured out how to reverse the effects because she was, once again, her usual thin, not so gross, self.

"Spectra, what are you doing here?" I demanded, venom lacing my voice. I floated above her, crossing my arms as I glared at her, "Last time you messed with me, it didn't turn out too well for you." I couldn't help but smirk.

"Yes," she sneered, "It took me a while to reverse the disgusting effects," she seemed to shudder, remembering, "But I did, so here I am. Miss me?"

"Hardly," I scoffed, firing an ecto-blast at her, "But what I want to know is, why come to the mall?"

"There are all sorts of emotions here," she grinned evilly, "Plenty to replenish my beauty. So many people at the mall are struggling with guilt, debt, or just the need to be away from their horribly unsatisfying normal lives. In other words, it's the perfect breeding ground for depression."

"Well, you're feeding frenzy is over!" I shouted, pulling out the Fenton thermos I had strapped to my belt.

"Uh-uh-uh," she clicked in disapproval, "There's that hero complex again. Now, why would you want to capture me? That will not diminish the feelings of incompetence and guilt that you feel towards your family members or the envy you feel towards your friends for having normal lives, or your frustration at your city's lack of appreciation for you. And capturing me will not change even the anger you feel towards you parents for _wanting _to destroy you," She smirked, relishing in the fact that she had just surfaced all of my insecurities, fears and flaws.

"Shut up! You know nothing about me, I love my family and I do not envy my friends because I also love who I am, a hero, which is exactly why I have to capture you," I held up my thermos and prepared to fire.

Spectra shrugged, "Suit yourself, but I just think you would want to know that you shouldn't trust everyone that you allow into your home." That made me hesitate, what did she mean by that?

"What are you saying, Spectra?" I spat.

"Oh, I don't know," she smirked, "But that woman over there, next to you sister, is giving off large levels of secrecy. And maybe you don't care, but I would want to know if someone in my house was hiding something from me, but then again, isn't that how your parents feel all of the time?" she asked, an evil glint in her eyes. This time I didn't hesitate, I sucked her into the thermos and capped it without a second thought. With one last glance down at my sister and Esme, I saw Jazz give me a congratulatory smile while Esme just eyed me suspiciously. Quickly, I turned and flew off, where I turned back into Danny Fenton and exited the bathrooms. I came outside and sat on the bench just in time to see my family approach.

"Hey, is everything alright? When I came out of the bathroom everyone was gone?" I asked.

"Well," my dad began to recall with extreme exaggeration, "I charged off to the scene, where I tried to hook the ghost with the Fenton Fisher, but she was too fast and I ended up getting caught in the line. Finally, that no good ghost, Danny Phantom, showed up and caught her," my dad told me, saying my other name with absolute distaste. I flinched involuntarily, which didn't seem to escape the notice of Esme.

'_Shoot,'_ I thought, '_I hope she's not one to put two and two together.'_

"Well," I said, deciding to change the subject, "now that the ghost is gone, should we go home?"

Esme smiled and nodded, "Only if," she added, "I get to drive."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

Renesme POV-

Maddie seemed pretty satisfied with herself. After all, we had been doing chores all morning (and barely complaining about it, too, except I did hear Jacob and Emmett muttering about it under their breath) and now it was time to begin the ghost training.

We gathered in the backyard after the other members of the pack went back to the reservation. On a flat tree stump, she had spread the various weapons which I wondered how she managed to get passed airport security, or for that matter, to actually fit in her tiny suitcase.

"This," she announced, picking up a…soup thermos? "Is the Fenton thermos, one of our most successful inventions."

"Why?" Emmett chuckled, "Does it actually keep soup warm?" he asked making a joke out of it, just like he does with everything else. He better not have forgotten that the rest of us were still ticked that he had gotten us into this mess in the first place, I was convinced that she would not have been so strict with the rules (and I wouldn't be in a pink HAZMAT suit) if it wasn't out of spite for us pranking her.

"No," she said, rolling her eyes, "This thermos, is specifically designed to capture ghosts, so that they can be held until we unload them back into the ghost zone."

"Umm…ghost zone?" Alice asked, wondering what that is.

"Yes, it's an alternate dimension, connected to and similar to ours, but instead filled with ghosts and passageways. My husband and I built a portal to the ghost zone," she exclaimed with pride. Alice nodded slowly, still confused.

"This," Maddie moved on, "is the ecto pistol, which, I believe you already know about," she sent a pointed look at Alice, "These are the Fenton wrist rays that work almost the same way. This is the Jack o'Nine Tails which can electrocute a ghost from a distance, much like a Taser, except this wraps around the ghost. These are the Fenton Phones, which filter out ghost noise, as well as provide contact between wearers," Maddie told us.

"What's this?" Emmett asked, picking up what looked like a silver-colored baseball bat.

"A baseball bat," Maddie sighed, "But my husband insists on calling it the Fenton anti-creep stick."

"And this," Maddie finished, "Is my own personal weapon." She pulled out a little silver cylinder which expanded into a duel-ended light saber, spinning it around for effect. Everyone, excluding Jacob, stepped back, now aware that those weapons can actually harm us. Maddie soon retracted the saber and motioned toward the weapons, "Okay, everyone pick one."

All of us picked up a weapon, several of us, including me, armed with wrist rays. I picked up a pair of Fenton phones too, connecting me to Alice who had the other pair and another wrist ray. My dad had the pistol, my mom had another wrist ray, Emmett had the thermos, and the anti-creep stick, Rosalie decided to sit out of the fight, filling her nails on the patio, Jacob had the Jack o'Nine Tails, and Jasper had another wrist ray.

"Now everybody, find a place to find cover, when you get captured, you must go sit on the patio" she told us and we all ducked to various hiding places. She pulled out the saber, leaping onto a low branch of a nearby tree, "Let the battle begin!" she called and we all sprang into action. Through the Fenton phones, Alice shouted out various directions for me to avoid as I crawled forward, aiming at the feet of others with the wrist ray. I heard a very distinct hiss from my dad, and I knew I had landed a bolt right in his ankle. I rolled, dashing behind a bush. Unfortunately, Jacob was already there, he picked me up, slinging me over his shoulder as I fired at him (which of course did absolutely nothing). He plopped me down in a patio chair and I slumped down, disappointed that I was now out of the game. One by one, the rest of my family members wound up on the sidelines. It came down to Emmett and Jacob in a stalemate, with Emmett whacking Jacob over the head with the creep stick while Jacob had him locked in the Jack o'Nine Tails. I thought we would have to call it a tie until, Maddie jumped out of the tree above them, hit them both with her saber, before wrapping them in glowing…fishing line? I guess that was something that she had decided not to tell us about. The, now mummified, bodies of Emmett and Jacob fell to the ground.

Maddie turned to the rest of us and bowed, removing her hood and goggles, earning her a round of applause from our crowd.

"You all did very nicely," she commended us, "Well, I believe that earned you all some lunch." Again, everyone cheered (even if only Jacob and I meant it) and we all rushed inside of the house.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16-

Esme POV:

When we arrived back at the house, having actually survived our shopping day, and ate dinner. After we had finished, the kids both looked at the clock and, in unison, sighed, starting to do their chores.

'_I will admit, these kids have great discipline, but Danny already looks so exhausted, and after the day we had, they shouldn't have to do any chores_,' I thought to myself.

"Why don't you guys go upstairs, I can handle the chores," I told them, taking the duster out of Jazz's hand and the trash out of Danny's. The two teens shared a look of disbelief before breaking out into large grins.

"Thanks Esme," they replied in unison, ponding up the steps to their rooms. I chuckled lightly, quickly finishing up their chores, sitting on the sunken-in couch (that, no doubt, became like that as a result of Jack using it). Speaking of, the large man had disappeared down into the lab as soon as they had arrived home. It didn't seem right, here they were, all at home, but nobody spent anytime together. It was a somewhat foreign concept to me, because, even though all of my 'kids' are grown, they all spend a lot of time with each other and even Carlisle and I (of course, some of that time was spent hunting, but even still, we were together).

"This family does not spend enough time together," I muttered to the camera. Making up my mind, I walked down the stairs to the basement. Jack was bent over a large table (awkwardly of course, do to his large size).

"Jack," I exclaimed, he looked up from his work, opening his mouth, probably to blather on about ghosts to the rest of the country on camera, but I quickly stopped him, "You need to spend more time with your children, quite soon they will be gone and you will be wondering where the time went. My family and I have always been close, and I want the same for you and your kids. So, I was thinking that we all play a game in the living room," I told him in a 'this-is-my-decision-and-you-have-no-choice-in-the-matter-tone.' After a few seconds of looking from me to the camera, Jack finally sighed.

"Alright, I'll be upstairs in a minute," he told me. Satisfied, I went upstairs to collect the kids. I knocked three times on Jazz's door before pushing it open. She sat legs crossed on a chair in front of her desk. She looked up at me with her teal-colored eyes.

"Hey, Esme, what's up?" she asked in a cheerful tone.

"Well, I was hoping that we could all play a game in the living room, you know, you, me, your brother, and your dad, like a family," I smiled.

Jazz seemed to hesitate so I decided to take a more of a psychiatrist approach.

"You know," I started, "I read somewhere that spending more time as a family and engaging in healthy competition can really influence the social bonds not only in the family, but also outside of the family, not to mention, getting together as a family encourages mental development as well, and some studies show that when families spend more time together, the children actually get better grades," I knew I had her now.

Jazz looked thoughtful, no doubt thinking about her brother and herself. I could practically see the thought process as the gears twisted in her head.

"Alright, sounds good," she decided finally, "I'll be down in a minute." I nodded in agreement, slowly closing the door behind me. Two down, one to go.

Again I knocked, before opening the door to Danny's bedroom. He had headphones in and was laying on his back on his bead with his eyes closed. His music was loud, so loud that the camera guy, not just myself, could hear the individual words coming out of his earbuds, (I know, because the camera guy muttered under his breath about liking that particular song). And although, it didn't seem possible that Danny would have been able to hear us come in, the second I opened the bedroom door, his eyes shot open, and he sat up in his bed, turning off his iPod and setting it on the little nightstand next to his bed.

"What's up?" he asked with a slightly sheepish smile.

"I was wondering if you wanted to play a game with, me, your sister, and your dad. They're already on board," I asked hopefully.

Danny took less than a second to think but then said, "Sure," with a grin, following us out of the room and downstairs where his sister and father had already gathered.

"What are we playing?" Danny asked casually, plopping down onto the lumpy couch.

"I was thinking Clue," Jazz spoke up with a smile. Danny and Jack shrugged, and thus it was decided. We set up the game, each choosing our own characters: Jazz was Mrs. Peacock, Jack was Colonel Mustard, Danny was Reverend Green, and I was Mrs. Scarlett. We played a couple of games, both of which, Danny somehow managed to win, correctly accusing both his sister and father's characters of the murder.

Before we knew it, it was late, and both of the kids went upstairs for bed when the camera men went home.

'_Tonight,' _I thought, '_I'm going to figure out why Danny is so tired in the mornings, and, hopefully prevent it.' _ One by one, the lights flicked off, even Jack went to bed, bored of being awake. Later that night, I crept along the hallway, pausing outside of Danny's door. I nearly continued on pacing down the hallway when I heard a tap that was somewhere between a pop and a click, followed by a nearly (if it weren't for my enhanced hearing) inaudible shuffle. Danny's heart-rate, which had been slightly slow, now increased to something that was still under that of a normal human. I debated with myself for a second before I pushed open the door, just in time to see Danny nod his head, which was currently sticking out of the window, at the street below, where, I had no doubt, that his partners in crime, Tucker and Sam would be waiting. Danny turned back around jumped, letting out a yelp when he saw me.

"E-Esme," he stuttered, "Um.." he gulped, "what are you doing here?"

I smirked at him, "Checking on you of course. And a good thing I did, I wondered why you always seemed so tired, you have been sneaking out every night."

"Uh…" he tried to think up an excuse, I walked passed him, leaning out of the window. Down below, as I suspected, Sam and Tucker were waiting, and they seemed extremely surprised to see me.

"I'm sorry guys, Danny won't be sneaking out tonight, he needs his rest," I called down to them, not waiting for a response, before I slid the window back down, locking it, "Now, you go back to bed."

"But-"he argued.

"No buts, I'm sure whatever it is can wait, and you know I'm just looking out for your health. And don't you even try to sneak out again, because I will know," I gave him a pointed look. Finally, seeming to accept that going back to bed was going to be inevitable, Danny sighed and crawled back into bed.

"Are you going to tell my dad?" he wondered.

"No, so long as you actually go to sleep," I told him, he nodded and I walked toward the door, smirking to myself as it closed with a subtle click. As I walked down the hall, I wondered how he was able to get out in the middle of the night at all. It was a two-story drop from his window, and surely if he was sneaking out the front door every night he would have been caught by now. I heard light snoring start down the hall, and I felt satisfied with myself.

'_Hmm,'_ I mused, '_That boy sure is a mystery.' _One that I was determined to solve.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

Alice POV-

The next day, Maddie gave us back our usual clothes, and even though I knew she would it was still a relief to be back in my usual, not spandex, expensive, brand-name, and most of all, cute clothes. After all, the lesson had been learned, and the revenge was, well, actually pretty impressive, but that's all it was: revenge (Maddie doesn't seem like the type to issue mindless torture).

So, in return for a low sentence in humiliation, Bella, Renesme, Rosalie, and I invited Maddie on a shopping trip to Port Angeles with us, which she gladly accepted. Unfortunately, she still wore her blue HAZMAT suit, but we were planning on changing that.

We all loaded up in Rosalie's red BMW after 'breakfast' and headed for Port Angeles. Rosalie managed to find a parking spot on the incredibly (oddly, already) crowded street and then we headed for the nearest boutique. Within a matter of seconds I had already picked out several things for myself and had loaded down my arms with them.

"Don't you girls have enough clothes?" Maddie chuckled lightly. I gasped, how could she even say that?

"One can never have too many clothes, they provide for endless possibilities in your wardrobe," I explained to her. She chuckled again shaking her head and taking the plush chair at the front of the store. After I had purchased my clothes, I went over to Maddie and pulled her from the seat.

"No offense Mrs. Fenton, but you need some new clothes," I informed her. She scoffed but didn't argue or struggle as I pulled her to the women's section of the store. I grabbed several outfits that I knew I would be buying for her and pushed her into the dressing room to try on the clothes which I already knew would fit her perfectly.

After a few minutes, after she had put on all of the outfits and refused to admit that they actually looked good on her, she came back out in her HAZMAT suit. I clicked my tongue in disappointment, shaking my head.

"What?" she asked, "I will admit these were all very nice but I really don't need them and I highly doubt that I have the room in my suitcase too take them home," she made excuses.

"Maybe you don't need them, but I _want _you to have them, and I will be buying them for you whether you like it or not. Oh, and don't worry, they will definitely fit in your suitcase," I told her. Maddie let out a deep sigh and draped the clothes over her arm, walking up to me as I continued to rummage through the racks.

"What are you looking for now?" she asked me.

"The perfect dress, I know we'll find it today, but we might not find it here…" I told her still looking.

"Alice you have enough dresses," she shook her head.

"Not for me, for you, when you go and meet your husband. We need something that says that the two weeks of waiting for you were more than worth it," I informed her. Maddie was silent, thinking this over. I could see the dress in my mind, I could see her running up to meet her husband, who was actually not clad in a jumpsuit like I had expected (something told me that was Esme's doing). Anyway, the dress is gorgeous, a long, dark violet, with a simple line of beaded sparkles down the middle. The back of the dress is spectacular too, crisscrossing beaded strands across a low back line. Yes, this was definitely the perfect dress, it just wasn't here.

"Okay," I said, as I realized that Rosalie, Renesme, and Bella (that girl still has no taste in clothing, thankfully, my good taste was able to rub off on her daughter), had purchased their clothes, "moving on."

We went to four different boutiques before I finally found it, it was the last one in stock and perfectly her size.

"Here it is! This is the one!" I squealed in delight holding up the beautiful dress.

"Oh, wow," was all Maddie could say as she delicately stroked the silky material. Once again, I pushed her into the changing rom and waited for her to come out and show me, Bella, Rosalie, and Renesme waited patiently on the bench beside me.

Finally, Maddie came out, the dress was as beautiful as I knew it was going to be.

"That dress looks amazing on you!" Renesme squealed, "Excellent choice, Alice!"

"Yeah, I will admit, it looks incredible," Bella added and Rosalie nodded slowly in agreement as Maddie spun around to see the back of the dress in the mirror.

"Thank you," Maddie blushed and went back into the changing room to take the amazing dress off.

"Let's go ring it up!" I announced when she came back out.

"No way," Maddie told me in a 'this-is-final' tone, "I saw the price, this dress is way too expensive and there is no way I'm letting you buy it for me."

I picked up the price tag, the dress was only 438 dollars, for me, that was a bargain.

"Please," I scoffed, "that's a fraction of what I would have spent shopping yesterday, and because your punishment kept us in the house, I guess that's means you have saved us money. Besides, that dress looked so amazing on you, Esme and Carlisle would want you to have it. If it makes you feel any better, you can pay for lunch," I told her in an equally 'I'm-not-changing-my-mind' tone. Maddie held my gaze for a second then finally sighed in surrender.

"Fine, but I am paying for lunch," she told me. I grinned and took the dress from her hands to go pay for it.

"While I'm buying this, why don't you go change into one of those other outfits we bought you today," I told her, Maddie rolled her eyes but took the bags from our previous purchases into the changing room and came out wearing dark blue jeans and a green, quarter-sleeved top.

"Much better," I approved and shoved her HAZMAT suit into one of the other bags.

We stopped to put our shopping bags in Rosalie's car and then went to lunch at a nice restaurant (no too nice, but nice enough) right on the port, where we could see the gray water through the large windows. Rosalie and I ordered a (very) small side salad, considering we did not want to eat it at all, and some water, while Renesme ordered lasagna and a Coke. Maddie finally decided on the Fettuccine alfredo and a diet coke. It was nice.

After we had finished (Rosalie and I had stuck our salad on another table when she had gone to the bathroom) we went outside, we were all currently laughing at something Renesme said when screams erupted down the street.

Maddie POV-

When you have lived in Amity Park for as long as I have, you learn the difference between a regular scream and a 'it's-a-ghost' scream, and this scream was definitely the latter.

"Alice? Can you see anything?" I heard Renesme whisper.

"No," Alice whispered, her voice shaking, like that was something she wasn't used too. Renesme, Bella, and Rosalie's eyes widened.

I had no time to think about what that possibly could have meant. See anything? I mean honestly, what could she be seeing? Instead, I pulled out a Fenton Thermos from my purse and charged down the street in the direction of the ghost.

Alice POV-

_'What the heck was she doing?' _Seriously, what normal person, or at least somewhat-normal person, takes off running _toward _the running and screaming people.

"What is she doing?" Bella asked and we chased after her (in a human pace, we didn't want to draw any extra attention to ourselves. Finally we turned the corner just in time to hear.

"BEWARE! FOR I AM THE BOX GHOST! I HAVE POWER OVER ALL THINGS CARBOARD AND SQUARE! TREMBLE BEFORE THE MIGHT OF MY AWESOME BUBBLE WRAP!" a voice bellowed. We looked up to see a fat blue man _floating _above us and throwing boxes. Maddie just rolled her eyes, opened the Fenton Thermos and sucked the ghost inside. He vanished into a vortex of swirling blue light with one final "BEWARE' before Maddie snapped the cap back on the top.

She turned back to the three of us who were gawking at her dumbstruck and smirked, "And that is how you catch a ghost."


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18:

Danny POV-

"Did you get anything else, Tucker?" I asked, hoping that my best friend— who sat across from me in the booth at the Nasty Burger— would have some kind of explanation as to why Esme could catch me sneaking out, after only being here a few days, when my parents still haven't figured it out.

"No, sorry, dude," he shrugged, "Whoever or _whatever _she is, her and her family have done an excellent job of covering their tracks."

"Figures," I huffed.

"Come on Danny, maybe this was just a coincidence. Maybe she was getting up to get a drink of water and heard you shuffle on the floor or something," Sam suggested.

"I made the bottom of my feet intangible, you would have to have super hearing to be able to hear that," I hissed quietly.

"I don't know Danny," Sam finally sighed, "But look at the bright side, you are so much more rested today, and besides, it was only the box ghost and Tucker and I were able to handle it."

"Alright, I guess," I acknowledged, "But what if tonight it's someone worse and she catches me sneaking out…or even worse, what if she sees me change. I was just about to transform before she opened my bedroom door," I told them.

"Tonight just stay invisible, if she does come in then she will think that she was already to late," Tucker suggested.

"Okay, that's as good of an idea as any," I sighed.

…

That night, when my ghost sense went off at 2:30 in the morning, I decided to implement Tucker's idea, turning my whole body invisible, and intangible, as I got out of my bed. Sure enough, Esme burst through the door. I held my breath, slowly floating toward the outside wall so I could phase through.

Her brow furrowed, and she scanned the room, her eyes locking on to where I was invisibly floating.

'_How can she know I'm here!?'_ I thought, she stepped closer, I decided that I wasn't about to take the chance, and made a beeline for the wall. I managed to escape without her catching me. I sparred one last look through my bedroom window, only to see a very confused-looking Esme staring at the spot I had just been. I shook my head, that was way too freaky and way too close.

Esme POV-

The next night, I heard the shuffle of Danny's bed again after his light snoring suddenly stopped. I was sure he was awake and about to sneak out again, but I couldn't let that happen so I burst open the door, only to find the room empty.

Or, at least, that is what it would look like to anyone else.

I heard the very slow but steady beat of his heart and the short breaths his was taking from his nose. My eyes followed to where my ears said he was…an empty space in the middle of the floor. That didn't make any sense…how could he be there without physically _being _there. I took a step toward the spot, the heart rate quickened. I mentally smirked, even if I couldn't see him (somehow) I knew Danny was there, and he definitely didn't want to be found.

Then, all of a sudden, there was a breeze and a, what would be inaudible to anyone else, brushing on the wall, before he was gone. I could no longer hear his breath or heartbeat and the empty space in front of me was just that, empty space.

Somehow, I reasoned, he had been able to completely disappear before I had had time to bust him for sneaking out.

'_Since I couldn't catch him sneaking out, maybe I can catch him sneaking in,' _I though to myself, closing his bedroom door and stationing myself outside of it. I slid down the wall, sitting on the matted carpet.

Half and hour later, the faint brushing sound was back, and I knew Danny had somehow gotten in his room without using the front door. For me, this wasn't so out of the ordinary, but for an average human, as all signs say that Danny should be, this would be nearly impossible. This time I opened the door quietly, trying not to tip him off that I had heard him come back in, hoping that I could still catch him in the act.

But Danny was already in his bed, in his pajamas, not asleep yet, but definitely doing a convincing job of pretending to be. I stepped closer and his heart rate quickened, yet again. I finally decided that it would not be worth it to question Danny about it now, especially considering that I didn't have any physical proof that he had actually been out of his bed tonight.

So, sighing, I stepped back out into the hall, hearing Danny sigh in relief and his heart rate drop back to its usual slow beat. I closed the door behind me with a quiet click.

At this point I had decided that Danny, obviously, wasn't human, or at least not completely human, the question was, however, than what was he?

Obviously he wasn't a vampire, he had a pulse and a heartbeat, not to mention that I could still smell blood in his veins…even if it did smell a little differently. Not a werewolf, he didn't have the classic wet-dog smell that I had come to expect every time the pack came over to my house.

'_Could he be half-vampire, like Renesme,'_ I considered but quickly scratched that theory as I realized that, obviously neither of his parents were vampires and they were both _definitely _his parents, as he had both of their traits. Plus, if another vampire was staying in our home right now, Carlisle would have told me.

So once again, I was stumped. Whatever it was, his friends knew about it, so he probably was not dangerous to humans. And whatever it was, his parents obviously had no idea what it was, so, for whatever reason, Danny did not want to tell his parents, maybe out of fear or something else. Unfortunately, my knowledge of other mythological creatures in our world is kind of lacking. Which meant one thing…

Tomorrow I would have to talk with Carlisle.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19:

Carlisle POV-

"Esme, what do you mean he was there but he wasn't 'there' ?" I asked Esme over the phone. Today had been one of those rarely sunny days in Forks, and, of course, I had pulled everyone out of school for some well-deserved hunting, I did not, however, guess that Maddie would have wanted to tag along too. So now, we were all seated in the living room, trying to figure out a way to go out without exposing our secret, when Esme called and I was forced into another room where Maddie would not hear me discussing her son.

"Well, judging by his breathing and heart rate, he was there, but judging by logic and eyesight, he wasn't," she told me.

"So, you're saying that Maddie's son was invisible?" I couldn't help but smile at this, it almost seemed too far-fetched, even for us.

"Yes!" she exclaimed.

"Well, as far as I know, the only thing that can actually become invisible is a ghost, and the existence of ghosts hasn't even been fully proven in most studies," I told her.

"Oh no, Carlisle, they exist," she insisted.

"Okay, even still, what would you be insinuating? That their son is a ghost? That he's dead?" I asked.

"Um…Carlisle, we're dead," she reminded me.

"I know that, but both of his parents are _alive _and you said it yourself that he's alive too, and if that's the case how could he be a ghost?" I asked.

"I never said he _was _a ghost!" she exclaimed, "All I'm saying is that he was definitely invisible, and then he just wasn't in the room anymore!"

Suddenly, from the living room, Alice shouted "Carlisle!"

I sighed, "Listen Esme, I really have to go. Just keep investigating and I'll look into it too. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"But—" she tried to protest, but I cut her off.

"Got to go, I love you," I told her before ending the conversation. I could understand her concern, we might have been hitting on something that nobody knew of, which would mean that nobody would know what he was capable of, but right now, we had bigger problems right here. Our family 'hunting' trip, had suddenly become a group activity, involving Maddie and most of America, considering, the camera crew had decided to come along as well.

I went back out into the living room, managing to shoot a very, quick, pointed, glare at Emmett for getting us into this mess in the first place, before sitting on the couch with the rest of my family, as we tried to figure a way around this mess.

"Carlisle," Edward spoke, "We were just telling Maddie, how these trips have always just been a family affair.

I opened my mouth to speak, but Maddie cut me off.

"But isn't the whole point of Wife Swap to include someone else into your family and change a few things in each other's lives," she argued.

"Yes, but—" I tried to answer, but again, she cut me off.

"And, if in fact you now do not want to leave on this trip, the kids should return to school, after all there is no legitimate reason, for them to be truant today, am I correct?" she argued again.

" Um…" I started again, but this time, when a momentary blank look crossed over Alice's face, she interrupted me.

"You know what, Maddie, you are completely right, why don't you got gather up anything you will need for a day in the woods, and we will meet you down here, ready to go, in thirty minutes," she told her. Maddie's face brightened, and she smiled at the rest of us as she went upstairs to pack.

I glanced at Alice, who subtly motioned the rest of us to the kitchen area, while the cameramen took a break.

"So what's the plan?" Emmett asked so quietly that only we could hear.

"Okay, Somehow, we will manage to loose Maddie and the cameramen in the forest. Jake, you and Nessie will stay with them, while the rest of us hunt. Then, when they have finally given up on finding us, lead them back to the house where we will be waiting for them," Alice told us.

"Okay, but how are we going to keep from sparkling in the sunlight," Rosalie asked. A devious smile crossed over Alice's face.

"Leave that to me," she grinned.

…

Thirty minutes later, we were all coated in various foundations, and lotions and powers to cover up that natural sparkle of our skin. We were also loaded down with long sleeves, hats, pants, gloves, and closed toed shoes, just in case. In addition, we each grabbed a backpack so that we wouldn't look suspicious on this trip.

Maddie came down the stairs, dressed for a hike, with a backpack slung over her shoulder as well.

"Are we ready to go?" she asked cheerfully.

We all replied with various forms of 'yes' and headed out the back door into the woods behind our home. Jacob led the way, and Maddie and Nessie followed, Maddie, immediately striking up a one-sided conversation about how to identify specific kinds of moss in the forest. The rest of us allowed the cameraman to pass in front of us, and we slowly continued behind. Every second we would each be a foot farther from the group until we were able to easily sprint off into the surrounding forest at full speed without being detected by Maddie.

Maddie POV-

About ten minutes into the hike, I looked behind us to find that Edward, Bella, Carlisle, Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper, and Alice were not behind us anymore. I stopped in my tracks, nearly causing the cameraman to run into me.

"Where did they go?" I asked to no one in particular. I looked between the cameraman, Jacob and Renesme, who all shrugged, although the cameraman seemed lightly more confused and concerned than the other two.

"Let's just keep going, I'm sure they'll catch up with us," Jacob suggested.

"No, I think we should turn around and look for them," I told him, taking a few steps in the opposite direction.

"Mrs. Fenton, really, they know these woods really well, and I'm sure we'll be able to find them," he insisted. I didn't like that idea, but, after a few seconds, I sighed and we continued on in the direction we had been going.

A few hours later, we were still, walking, we hadn't found them yet, and now, it was starting to get darker. After my subtle hinting that we should go back, became more forceful hinting, Jacob finally sighed.

"I bet they already went back to the house, let's head back and see if we can find them there," he announced. I agreed, and we turned around. It seemed odd that, what had taken us several hours to get to the point where we were in the forest, had only taken us about fifteen minutes to get back. Had we been walking in circles the whole time and I hadn't even noticed?

Sure enough when we arrived back at the house, there they were, all seven of them, seated comfortably around the back patio table, like they had been waiting for us.

"What took you guys so long?" Alice asked.

"I hope you're hungry, we ordered some pizza and they should be here soon," Jasper added.

"Great, I'm starved," Jacob exclaimed, running into the house. I laughed, my worry fading. Maybe I had just been over reacting.

But suddenly, the entire atmosphere changed when the cameraman tripped, breaking the camera, and slicing open the skin on his arm.


	20. Chapter 20

**Sorry it's been so long everybody, I've just been busy and well, I hit writer's block. But after seeing the Breaking Dawn premiere last night, I have some new inspiration. I hope that you enjoy this.**

Chapter 20:

Maddie POV-

Everybody tensed, Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, and especially jasper looked like they were in pain. Jacob, who had already been in the house, rushed outside and escorted them away. This all seemed to happen in a matter of seconds, which to my scientific brain did not seem possible so I just attributed it to some kind of shock. Not a second after realizing this, I crouched down next to the cameraman and pulled some bandages out of a hidden pocket on my person. Carlisle crouched down too, making sure that the man wasn't too badly injured. I looked up from bandaging the man to see that everyone else had gone inside too.

I almost shook my head in disapproval. I have always taught my kids to provide help whenever someone is in trouble, and never just to walk away before finding out if they were okay or not. I was glad that at least Carlisle had come to help.

"Are you alright?" he asked the cameraman, one his arm had been properly bandaged. There was a lot of blood but it appeared to only be a shallow wound on his arm.

"Yes, thank you," he replied looking at both of us. He stood up and walked into the house. I decided now might be as good of a time as any to voice my concerns to Carlisle.

"I am surprised though, that the other's didn't stay to help," I said, sounding more disappointed than I had intended. Carlisle nodded.

"Well, most of them have a problem with blood. That is why Jacob had to rush out here for them, they probably would have passed out had he not been there so quickly," Carlisle told me. That made sense I guess. My kids were never hesitant to help somebody out but, at the same time, neither of them ever got woozy around blood.

"But what about the others? They had been out here even after Jacob had moved some of the kids inside?" I wondered.

Carlisle shrugged, "They probably just went to comfort them. Alice, Jasper, Rose, and Emmett can be really self conscious about their aversion to blood."

I nodded. There was no point in continuing this conversation. We walked into the living room where everyone had congregated. The four who were ushered away still glanced warily at the cameraman who was still nursing his hurt arm in the kitchen.

"We're really sorry that we didn't stay to help," Alice said looking upset with herself, the others looked at me sincerely, nodding in agreement as Jacob and Renesme took some pizza from the box on the counter.

I smiled and nodded to them as I took a piece of pizza for myself.

Esme POV-

I stared at my phone for several seconds after Carlisle had hung up on me.

'_Fine,' _I decided, '_If he can't help me figure this out, I will find out on my own.' _

My talk with Carlisle had convinced me of one thing, that my talk with him had done absolutely no good, I was still in the same confused place I had been before the phone call.

'_I need to get my ideas on paper,' _I told myself, going to the desk in the guest room and pulling out a piece of paper and a pen.

I titled it: Things I know or don't know, about Danny Fenton.

'_Okay, number 1, has heart beat, even if it is slower than normal. Number 2, he breathes, also slower than an average human. Number 3, has blood, even if it seems a little different. Number 4, both parents are normal…well, normal for ghost hunters. Number 5, he can somehow become invisible and walk through walls…. Number 6, he is something that Carlisle doesn't even know about. Number 7, his friends know…whatever it is. Number 8, he isn't dangerous to humans. Number 9, his temperature is almost as cold as mine. Number 10, his parents don't know…whatever it is, and something tells me he wants to keep it that way. Number 11, doesn't smell like wet dog," _even having written all of this down, there was still no clear way of this making sense. I crumpled the list up and pitched it towards the trashcan.

Suddenly, I heard a loud crash from down stairs, and figuring that Jack had either broken something, or made something explode, I went downstairs to investigate.

Danny POV-

In the middle of class, my ghost sense went off. I raised my hand to go to the bathroom. Lancer merely looked at me tiredly, and then sighed, letting me go. Thankfully, it was just one of Vlad's idiot vulture minions who I easily sucked into the thermos. Then I decided that right now would be a perfect time to do a little surveillance on Esme, and maybe find out how she could know that I was there when I was invisible. I flew home. In the kitchen, my dad was tinkering with a new ghost-detecting gadget. As I invisibly floated in, the device picked up my ectoplasmic signature and fired a blast in my direction. I had not seen that coming, but when I heard Esme coming don the stairs, I realized that I had unintentionally created the perfect distraction so that I could snoop through her room.

I phased through the ceiling. Her room was meticulously clean, something that I wasn't used to, at least from my parents (Jazz's room, on the other hand, was always clean). I went into the bathroom attached to the room. It was exactly as Jazz and I cleaned it when we found out that we would be expecting a houseguest, it looked like it hadn't even been used. There was also nothing on the counter, makeup, toothpaste, toothpaste, nothing. In fact, it seemed the only personal object that she had placed in her room was a picture of her family in a frame. She had told us that all of her kids were adopted, but nearly all of them had the exact same eyes with the exception of two: a tan boy with black hair and his shirt off and a girl who seemed younger than the rest who looked a lot like two other members of her family except that her eyes were chocolate brown instead of gold.

'_Who has gold eyes anyway? I'd never seen anyone with eyes like that before Esme came here and now I see that the majority or her supposedly 'adopted' family has them too?' _I mused, confused.

I pulled my phone out of my suit, feeling the need to snap a picture of the picture. I set it back where it was on the nightstand and scanned the rest of the room. One thing seemed out of the ordinary, a piece of trash next to the trashcan. Whatever it was, she must have been writing it before she went downstairs (something tells me that Esme wouldn't just leave trash on the floor). I picked up the little wad of paper. It surprised me.

She had been making a list, about things about _me. _I suddenly heard footsteps down the hall, and phased out of the ceiling as Esme came through her bedroom door.

I rushed back to school and realized that it was already time for lunch.

'_Great,' _I grinned, '_Now I can share what I found with Tucker and Sam.'_

I changed back to human and went to the cafeteria.

"Hey dude. What took you so long?" Tucker asked.

"I decided to go through Esme's stuff," I said sheepishly.

Sam glared at me, "Danny come on, we haven't even established that there is anything wrong with her yet, you shouldn't have gone through her stuff."

"I know, but look what I found. If we didn't have reason to think she was suspicious before, we do now," I told them, taking out the piece of paper and the picture on my cellphone.

"Okay, what is this supposed to prove it's just a picture of her family," Tucker asked.

"Yeah, her adoptive family, but they all have the same _gold _eyes," I pointed out. Sam frowned at the cellphone, plucking it out of Tucker's hand and studying it more closely.

"That's my cousin," she stated, positively, while pointing to the tan boy in the picture.

"It seems weird that he is one of the only two who don't have eyes like the rest of them," I told them, "Oh, and look at this," I uncrumpled the paper. Sam took it out of my hand and read it.

"It seems she's been checking up on you too," she told me, before showing the note to Tucker.

"The question is, why? And How does she know some of those things? I mean my heartbeat and breathing are slower than normal, but she would have to _hear _that to know that, and, I _knew _that she had somehow known that I was invisible. But the question is how," I ranted.

"If she can hear your heartbeat, it's no wonder that she knew you were invisible, she could hear that you were there but she couldn't see you," Tucker said, "But what's with the one about wet dog?"

"How should I know?" I wondered.

"To me it all almost sounds like she was eliminating a possibility, you 'you have a heartbeat and you breath so you can't be…whatever' or 'you don't smell like wet dog so you also can't be…', but what she would mean by that, I don't know," Sam shrugged, "And who is Carlisle?"

"That's her husband," I told her, pointing to his image on the picture in my phone, "But I don't know why he would have so much information. To me that makes it sound like they are something…else too."

"So what does that make her?" Tucker asked.

"I don't know," I sighed, pulling the paper out of his hand and flipping it over, "Let's make our own list of what we know about her."

"Okay, number one, she has cold skin too," Sam said.

"Her whole family has the same color eyes," Tucker suggested.

"Yeah…except your cousin," I looked at Sam, "It seems weird how he is involved in this too. Do you think that he could be…I don't know…different too. I mean he's obviously not whatever they are, and obviously not half-ghost but could he be something else…"

"He wasn't last time I saw him, but that was like four years ago, but he definitely didn't look like that," she frowned.

"What did he look like?" I asked.

"He was…not scrawny but not super ripped like he is now, and his hair was a lot longer, and he didn't have a tattoo, I barely recognized him when I saw the picture," she told us.

"So that's a maybe?" Tucker wondered.

"Maybe," Sam agreed with a nod.

Esme POV-

I heard the light brushing sound right before I opened my bedroom door, but, of course, when I opened the door there was nobody in there. I sighed and looked around. The picture frame on my nightstand had been slightly disturbed because I could see the nearly invisible particles of dust had been pushed around, and that piece of paper I had neglected to pick up before rushing downstairs, was missing.

I sighed, knowing, that somehow, Danny had gone through my things, and thanks to that note, he now knew I was suspicious of him.

That left me with one option now, considering I would never be able to get anything out of him now, I would have to follow him and his friends after school to figure out what is going on.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21:

Esme POV-

I decided that I would begin tailing Danny tonight, unfortunately, until then, I would have to live with going through his stuff. Wrong? Maybe, but he went through mine first.

After Jack had run out to the hardware store to get something ghost related, and with the kids still at school, I took the opportunity to snoop.

His room looked like what you would expect an average teenage boy's room to look like, in other words, it was a mess. I sighed, remembering that I was not here to be judging his living conditions and instead started looking through his stuff (I also had to physically restrain myself from cleaning it up, because I didn't want to give him any other reason to think I was suspicious of him).

I decided to check logical hiding places first. Pillowcase: Nope. Under clothes in the drawers: Nope. Inside of a book: Well that one wasn't much of a problem because there were no books. In the closet: Nope, the only things in there were a the few articles of clothes that _weren't _on the floor, and a box of childhood memories on the top shelf. Even after searching through the box I found nothing useful. Under the bed: with all the crap under there it was unlikely I would find anything useful. On his desk: Nope, only a few NASA magazines and posters. I sighed, sitting on the unmade bed.

I found nothing, at all about my suspicions about Danny. I considered looking through Jazz's room, but I reconsidered. There was no reason for me to snoop through her stuff too, especially considering that I wasn't even sure if she knew what was up. On the bright side, I hadn't found anything illegal in Danny's room, like you might find in other teenagers rooms, which confirmed my opinion that Danny is generally a good kid. Secretive, but good.

I glanced at the blue alarm clock on his nightstand, which read 4:00, meaning that both Danny and Jazz would be home soon.

I left Danny's room, careful to leave it exactly as I had found it, and went downstairs.

Danny POV-

"Maybe we should go to the library," Sam suggested as we walked out of school after the final bell rang.

"I doubt we'll be able to get anything with gold eyes, smells like wet dog, and cold skin," I retorted.

"Okay, but what should you do then?" she wondered.

"I don't know. Keep my guard up, I guess, and keep an eye on her," I shrugged, unable to think of anything else I could do.

Sam frowned like she wasn't satisfied but said nothing.

As we got closer to my house, the Fenton Works sign loomed ahead. I sighed internally, not really wanting to go home, but that might only raise her suspicions if I didn't come home.

"Bye Danny," Tucker and Sam called as I walked up my front steps. I waved in return and went inside. I noticed Dad wasn't home, and with Jazz staying after school to work on a science project, that meant that I would be alone with Esme. Great.

"Hi Danny," She called to me, looking up from reading a book on the couch. I didn't buy it. Something told me that she had just picked up that book as a way of making sure that she would catch me when she came home.

"Hi, Esme. How was your day?" I asked, trying to come off as polite instead of annoyed.

"Oh fine. It's funny, I couldn't find something that I was looking for earlier…but I guess it doesn't matter now. Your dad went to the hardware store by the way. How was your day?" she asked.

I tensed a little. _How the hell could she possibly know that I stole that paper out of her room? _I relaxed a little, realizing that might not have been about the paper, it was trash after all, but I still got the feeling the comment had been directed at me.

"Fine. Same as usual," I shrugged, putting my backpack on the other empty couch and going to the kitchen to get something to eat.

I grabbed a packet of Poptarts from the pantry and then a Gatorade from the fridge. I paused.

"Do you want one?" I asked.

"Oh, no thanks," Esme answered politely, and I barely noticed the slight flicker of disgust across her face. Maybe it was nothing, and she didn't like Gatorade, but, maybe there was actually something to that.

I sat at one of the kitchen bar stools, but Esme never took her eyes off of me, her facial expression, slightly perplexed. In fact, it was probably the same expression that I was giving her.

Suddenly my dad burst through the door.

"Danny boy, where's Jazz?" he greeted me, "I got some new wire for an invention, and, I brought home KFC."

I grinned, my dad had actually bought the largest bucket of chicken. But, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Esme, crinkle her nose. _Hmm…she doesn't like fried chicken either? That's crazy._

Esme ate the chicken, and was able to keep up the act that she was enjoying it pretty well, but every once in a while I noticed that she would recoil at the food.

I wondered if I had just happened upon two of the things she didn't like. Gatorade and fried chicken. Maybe, she was actually health crazed. If that was the case, it would make sense that she didn't like either of those things. But, why would she not have imposed those opinions on us yet, that was the point of Wife Swap right.

Dinner dragged on, none of us really had anything to say, that is, except for my dad, who wouldn't shut up, as he continued to blather on about ghosts (I'm pretty sure the camera man even started to doze off).

About half an hour later, Jazz burst through the front door.

"What's your problem?" I asked regarding the angry look on her face.

"None of the other members in my group have put any effort _at all _into our project. So I have to do _everything_!" she sat down angrily and removed a drumstick from the bucket. I smiled a little. This was not uncommon for Jazz. She has the highest class rank in her grade so people often take advantage of her. But at the same time, even if someone tries to help, Jazz is so OCD she rarely lets them and ends up redoing it by herself anyway.

Esme didn't seem nearly as interested in Jazz's life as she was in mine, of course.

Suddenly my ghost sense went off. I tried to cover it up by coughing and drinking, but I'm pretty sure Esme still noticed. _Crap._

"Can I be excused? I Have a lot of homework to do," I asked my dad, who nodded in between his devouring of what used to be a chicken wing. I got up, going up to my room.

Immediately, I phased through my room.

Technus.

Trying to take over the electronics store.

After he gave his usual "I am Technus master of all things technology…" speech, I easily sucked him into the thermos, leaving the store owner to clean up the now-disorganized store, and flew back home.

As I prepared to phase into my room, I realized that it wasn't empty. Someone, specifically, Esme, was seated on my bed. I sighed. I think she heard me because her head turned towards the window. Thankfully, I was invisible.

I flew to the bathroom, phased through, and changed back, and then walked into my room. Pretending to be surprised that Esme was in there.

"Um…hi. Not to be rude or anything…but what are you doing in here?" I asked her.

"I was just wondering if you needed help with your homework," she lied smoothly.

"Um…no, I think I'll be fine. But I'll let you know if I do," I told her.

She sighed, standing up.

"Okay, but I'm here if you need me okay?" she asked. I nodded and she left the room.

I flopped on my bed, so happy that she would be leaving in six more days, unfortunately, that also meant six more days of hiding my secret.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22:

Maddie POV-

That night we had dinner on the reservation with the tribe.

Although science is more my forte, I am also fascinated with history and different cultures. I also happen to be 1/4 Cherokee on my mother's side, which made the stories all the more interesting.

I remember being about fifteen when I had first decided on the idea to hunt ghosts. My grandfather, who was full Cherokee, insisted that this was a bad idea, and that we should coexist with the spirits of the Earth, but I had always pushed this notion aside. After all, my grandfather had never been to Amity Park. [note: don't quote me on that, I don't know much about Native American beliefs even if I am part]

So, after the food was, well…depleted (those boys can eat, and after all the times I have seen Tucker and Danny clean out all the food in the house, that's saying something) the legends began and I listened intently to the stories of the tribe.

They began with their legends of the creation of the world, which were not unlike other Native American stories I had heard, and then they went on to the creation of their tribe. They believed that the members of their tribe were descended from wolves, and that, with the presence of something called "the cold ones" they received the ability to turn into wolves to defend their land.

Of course, I found the whole idea silly. Who could obviously turn into wolves? But, I knew better than to scoff at the beliefs of others, after all, I have been on the receiving end of such criticism before because so many people not only doubt the existence of ghosts, but they believe that they cannot be hunted.

I did wonder about "the cold ones" though. Maybe they meant ghosts. Of the few times I had come close enough to ghosts to feel their temperature, they were always frigid. Would that mean that all tribes do not share the same opinion of coexistence with spirit as my Cherokee grandfather had? When the stories were over and everyone was standing up to leave for the night, I attempted to walk over to the chief and ask him my questions, and maybe even see if there were some Native American techniques that could improve my ghost hunting techniques. However, I was stopped by Edward, who told me that everyone was ready to go. I wanted to tell him to hold on a minute, but when I looked to where the chief had been, he was no longer there. I sighed. Oh, well, maybe I'd get another chance another time, and I followed the Cullens to where several of the cars used to take us here had been parked.

Esme POV-

The next day while the kids were at school, it occurred to me that I had not changed the lifestyle of this family enough in the time I had been here.

'And that,' I thought to myself with a smug smile, 'Is exactly what I'm going to do, starting now.' And, with that thought, I whipped out my laptop and immediately began to order new things for the house. Of course, the house was nice, but, at the same time, it looked like it hadn't been updated in any way since Jazz was born. The furniture was old and sagging, the kitchen was easily reminiscent of the 90's and overall the house was in desperate need of a remodel, however, I had decided to leave the lab alone.

But, I also did not want to completely erase the homey style the house had. So, with that in mind, I selected only the furniture that would appeal to the family's tastes. Also, the space needed to be personalized to the family, so I had a special project in mind for the wall of the stairs.

Not a half an hour later, I had scoured all the furniture sites, and placed my orders for everything from rugs to bookshelves. I also bought a storage unit, to put all of their other furniture, just in case they didn't like it. In addition, I ordered paint, and hired several contractors to revamp the outdated kitchen. This would all be happening in two days, and, all in the same day. Unfortunately, this meant that I would have to find some task to occupy the family during that time.

I closed my laptop, feeling somewhat satisfied with myself.

'There's something else I need to do,' I decided. This family is not open with each other enough, and I have to be the one to change that.

With a plan already in mind, I set my computer back in its case in my bag, and went down stairs for the kids to return home from school.

I was ready and seated on the couch when Danny and Jazz came home from school.

Danny looked at me, already appearing suspicious, like he knew what I was planning, and maybe he did.

'_Maybe he has mind-reading abilities like Edward…'_ I mused, but seeing how he did not react to that thought I guessed it was unlikely.

"How was school?" I asked, nonchalantly.

"Good," Jazz answered, "I got an A on my project."

"Great," I congratulated her, while still keeping my peripheral focus on Danny, who regarded me with the same expression, "Well," I told them, clasping my hands together, "Why don't you two wait here, and I'll go get your dad. I've got something for us to do together," Danny looked like he had expected this as he slumped into the seat as I got up to go down to the lab.

Danny POV-

I watched as Esme left the room and I heard the gentle thump of her feet down the stairs. Then I waited until she was out of earshot, and I mean _really _out of earshot (she could hear me when I was intangible), in the soundproof basement before I turned to Jazz.

"Do you not realize something is up with her?" I hissed my voice low.

"What do you mean?" Jazz asked, seeming genuinely confused.

"I think she's close to figuring out my secret," I whispered. This time Jazz gave me the 'Are-you-serious?' look and rolled her eyes.

"Come on Danny, now, I think you're just being paranoid," she said.

"Yeah, last time you thought that Youngblood was trying to kill our parents," I glared at her. She pursed her lips but was unable to reply, mostly because I was right and she couldn't stand to admit it.

Then I heard my dad's heavy stomping up the stairs as he and Esme entered the room and sat opposite Jazz and I on the couch.

"What's this all about, I was in the middle of a breakthrough," my dad whined.

Esme ignored him.

"My family and I are open with each other about everything. And, quite honestly, I think all of you are far to guarded around each other. And, you shouldn't be, you're family. That's why; I decided that we're going to have a share circle. You're all going to tell each other _everything_ that goes on in your lives," she said with a smirk.

I gulped silently, and cast a glance over at Jazz. She had paled, and was giving me the 'Okay-I-believe-you-now-look.'

Esme looked at me expectantly.

_Crap!_


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23:

Danny POV-

"That's all well and good, but, honestly, do you actually think that we are going to tell you everything about ourselves on national TV?" Jazz arched an eyebrow. Esme reluctantly lifted her eyes from her stare-down of me, and focused on Jazz.

Then she turned to the camera man and motioned for him to shut down the filming.

Then she turned back to Jazz with a 'how-about-now' some-what challenging look on her face.

"Okay, the cameras are off, better?" she asked in an overly accommodating voice.

This time, Jazz's argument had no ground so she simply sat back down, defeated. Meanwhile, I'm still in a predicament.

Esme obviously must have realized that none of us were going to speak, because honestly, she's right we are all guarded, not even just me, and you know what? We _like _it that way. It keeps us from driving each other more insane than we already do.

I mean, come on, I already have to do with my parent's actions, imagine if I had some insight into their minds too.

Suddenly I had an idea. When all else fails, make a scene.

"What exactly do you want us to say?" I crossed my arms defensively. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the camera man subtly turn back on his camera, "Are you expecting us to get some sort of revelation out of this 'share circle'? Like 'I'm so sorry, my personal business has caused so much damage to our family'. I can assure you, that isn't going to happen. You know why? Because we are happy the way we are, we are better off _not _knowing every detail of each other's lives. And, seriously, why are you so interested in our personal lives anyway?" I ranted. Sure, I was being harsh, but I had to find a way to make a scene large enough for me to have the excuse to get out of there.

"And, honestly, what is it that you _think w_e don't share with each other? The fact that I skip school sometimes? I can assure you, they know that. And, moreover, it hasn't caused any damage to this family. Sure, sometimes they are concerned for me, but I'm fine. I'm not drinking, I'm not gambling, I'm not doing drugs, I'm not murdering people, it's just sometimes I don't want to be at school. And, seriously? Your kids tell you everything? Nobody tells anyone everything. It just doesn't happen. So don't come around here judging us when you might not even know what goes on in your own house," I exclaimed, using this as my opportunity to get out of there, running up the stairs to my room and slamming the door for good measure.

A few minutes later, Jazz came up into my room.

"Danny! What the heck was that?!" she exclaimed.

"The single best acting performance of my life," I smirked leaning back in my desk chair.

Jazz seemed confused, and then a look of realization came across her face.

"Well, you know your little freak out id going to be on TV, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, I know. But it's not like other people haven't freaked out more, plus not even a ton of people watch that show. And, anyway, I can destroy the tape later if I have to," I shrugged.

"I hope you know what you're doing little brother," she shook her head.

"I'm keeping my secret, that's what I'm doing," I replied.

"What are you going to do? Throw a fit every time she asks you a question?" she asked me.

"No, but I'll find some way of not answering it. Besides I didn't throw a fit," I replied.

"Okkaaay, Danny, you just keep telling yourself that," she smirked back at me, leaving my room.

Esme POV-

"Jack, are you really okay with the fact that Danny may be hiding something from you?" I questioned him after Danny had gone upstairs.

Jack shrugged in response, "Maddie and I have seen how strange he has been acting, and it bothers us, but if Danny has something he wants to tell us it will be on his own time and in his own way. That is the way Maddie and I have always done it. We don't want him to feel like we are pressuring him into telling us something he doesn't want to."

"But what if he's doing something dangerous?" I asked him.

"I have faith that Maddie and I have raised Danny and Jazz to know right from wrong. And besides, you heard him say that he isn't drinking or doing drugs, and I happen to believe him."

I sighed, this wasn't working. I mean, it was obvious to me that Danny wasn't into anything illegal, but shouldn't Jack be the least bit concerned that his son has been acting strangely?

Jazz glanced at the two of us arguing back and forth, before getting up and going upstairs. From where I was sitting, I saw her go into Danny's room and close the door behind her.

'_Hmm…maybe she's more involved in this than I have given her credit for,' _I considered, so, of course I followed her up the stairs until I was directly outside Danny's room.

"The single best acting performance of my life," I heard Danny tell Jazz smugly.

'_So, obviously, he had been faking that. Everything he said down there was just a farce so he could get out of there before I started asking questions. A well-executed and effective farce, I'll give him that, but a farce nonetheless,' _I thought. Of course, I had known that Danny would probably get defensive when I put him on the spot like that, but I really hadn't expected the explosion I had gotten out of him.

'_I guess this means that Jazz is in on his secret, which, of course I still do not know what that is,' _I thought, '_Oh well, I still have time to find out what he's hiding from his parents, and, more importantly, why. Plus, the renovations will be done in less than two days, I still have those changes to look forward to.'_


End file.
